The effect of the nude gene on plasmacytoma development in BALB/cAn mice.

Abstract

The role of the T-lymphocyte in the development of plasma cell tumors may be investigated by attempting to induce these tumors in mice that lack a mature T-cell population. The nude mutation in mice is a recessive gene and homozygous mice (nu/nu) lack both a thymus (Pantelouris, 1968) and a hair coat (Flanagan, 1966). The absence of functional thymus glands in nu/nu mice results in a severe deficiency of mature T-lymphocytes throughout life (Scheid, et al. 1975; Chen et al. 1984). Consequently, these mice have defective immune responses which involve T-lymphocytes and have commonly been used to demonstrate the role of T-lymphocytes in a variety of immune responses (Eckels, et al., 1979; Jacobson, et al., 1974; Kindred, 1978). A congenic strain with the nu gene on the BALB/cAn background, the BALB/cAn•nu/nu, was utilized to determine whether nude mice would develop plasmacytomas (PCTs) and if so, at what incidence. In addition, we determined whether the BALB/cAn • nu/nu was genetically identical (with the possible exception of genes flanking the nude mutation on chromosome 11) to the BALB/cAnPt subline which is commonly used in PCT induction experiments.